Virtual model charts effects on lungs - Pollutants - United States Pacific Northwest National Laboratory research - Brief Article

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Oct, 2002

A virtual lung model developed at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Wash., may help predict the impact of pollutants on respiratory systems and provide new insights into asthma and other pulmonary diseases. The computer model, called the virtual respiratory tract, provides a three-dimensional view of how pollutants enter, travel through, and collect in the entire respiratory system. PNNL's prototype system models the nose, larynx, and lungs of a rat. Efforts are under way to model the respiratory systems of monkeys and humans similarly.

Understanding biological impacts from pollution has become more important as respiratory ailments have increased, as evidenced by the nearly doubling of asthma sufferers since 1980. By learning how particulates travel through the lungs, scientists can design treatments that more precisely target drug delivery for pulmonary diseases. Moreover, they can study how pollutants impact the lungs of healthy people, compared with those who suffer from respiratory ailments.

"We [have] designed a tool that will open up new possibilities for understanding how our environment affects our bodies," indicates Rick Corley, a PNNL environmental toxicologist. "... It will be the springboard for detailed modeling of the body's organs as a complete system."

Using the virtual respiratory tract, PNNL scientists can analyze the influence of various factors, such as the amount of pollutants or length of exposure, on healthy vs. diseased lungs by manipulating the computer model. For example, they can begin to simulate how gases, vapors, and particulates may act differently within lungs of people suffering from cystic fibrosis, emphysema, and asthma.

"The grid program allows us to translate raw [nuclear magnetic resonance] data into a computer image very quickly. We can go from data sets to a working model in hours, compared with weeks or months required by other approaches," explains Harold Trease, a computational physicist with PNNL. "This increased speed will allow us to replicate the studies many times over, which will give us greater precision, or to broaden our studies and create a database of information on healthy and diseased lungs."